The Dark Knight

[FatalTragedy]

Hate to be the first to bring it up here, but being an avid fan of the original film starring Keaton and Nicholson and the more recent Batman Begins, I must say I've officially been blown away. Bale is an ideal Bruce Wayne and Nolan's more plausible take on the story is highly engaging, even for skeptics like myself. I've only watched half of the first Spiderman movie, I don't plan on watching Iron Man, X-Men 1 through 15, The Incredible Hulk or The Fantastic Four, no matter how much cleavage Alba's flaunting. I will, however, continue to watch the Caped Crusader do his thing on the big screen so long as Nolan's name is attached.

I'm sure everybody is familiar with the hype surrounding Heath's performance. It's good, I'll say that much. I've heard it said that he wouldn't come close to consideration for an Oscar had he not died. I couldn't say for sure. But watch 10 Things I Hate About You, and then tell me that's the same guy playing Joker...

[Lord J]

If you hadn't brought it up, I eventually would have, FT. I thought this movie was phenomenal! The Dark Knight has once again raised the bar a slight notch on Comic book movies. I was always a fan of Jack Nicholson's performance as The Joker in the first Batman, but Ledger blew it out of the park by making The Joker scary again. This was a much much darker and more disturbed Joker which kind of reminded me of how he was portrayed in Batman: The Killing Joke. All other performances were top notch as well. And thank goodness for Maggie Gyllenhaal's replacal of Katie Holmes.

If I had one complaint, it would be that the movie may have been too long. But I don't mean "this is boring" too long, I mean "Holy Crap! My bladder's about to burst, but I can't run to the bathroom 'cause I don't want to miss anything!" too long.

[GiveMeGore]

I thought it was fucking atrocious!!!! Granted, I am no where near a fan of any fantasy/super hero flick. Never seen one minute of any Spider man movie, Hulk, Fantasic Four, and only the original Batman and sadly Batman and Robin. I gave this one a shot because Ledger looked creepy as hell. His performance was one of the best I've ever witnessed on the big screen. But it did not come close to saving this flick. Just awful. Bale is a horrendous Batman. Sucks. His performance in American Psycho is nothing short of brilliant.... but he is not Batman. Awful. The 2 hrs 40 minutes felt like an eternity.

[GeneralCinema]

Haven't seen it yet.  Because it's me, I read the spoiler.  Yeah, I do that.  At any rate, the movie sounds really, really good.  My friend said that it was 10x better than the first.  I probably won't have any money to see it in the theater, so I have to wait.

[Marshal Earp]

This may be the best superhero film ever made. And this is coming from a guy who LOVES the superhero sub-genre. Ledger's performance as The Joker was down right terrifying and amazing. Alive or not this is an oscar worthy performance. To me Keaton will always be Batman but Bale does a fine job as this darker version of the bat.

Overall though the quality of this film is just through the roof. I truly am blown away by this movie. It will take me time to digest if this is the best superhero film of all time but just the fact that I am considering it tells you how great this was. See this film at all costs!

[GiveMeGore]

This may be the best superhero film ever made. And this is coming from a guy who LOVES the superhero sub-genre. Ledger's performance as The Joker was down right terrifying and amazing. Alive or not this is an oscar worthy performance. To me Keaton will always be Batman but Bale does a fine job as this darker version of the bat.

Overall though the quality of this film is just through the roof. I truly am blown away by this movie. It will take me time to digest if this is the best superhero film of all time but just the fact that I am considering it tells you how great this was. See this film at all costs!

Wow, really? I don't get it man....   what did everybody love so much about it? The big explosions? Not one legitimate scene of violence. Yeah guns were blazing but people drop like they're in a video game. The pencil scene with the joker? I mean I understand it's PG-13 for a reason but c'mon..... give me SOMETHING. A DROP of blood maybe? Maybe some stylish shots here and there? Literally all I was looking for when seeing this was a little style, a little creativity but all I got was garbage, IMO. I think everybody just WANTED to love this flick so much that it didnt take alot to impress em. And what the hell was that bullshit with the "sonar" in Bales eyes and the big board Freeman was seeing over with the cell phone frequencies? I thought that shit was laughable.

[b0bo]

This may be the best superhero film ever made. And this is coming from a guy who LOVES the superhero sub-genre. Ledger's performance as The Joker was down right terrifying and amazing. Alive or not this is an oscar worthy performance. To me Keaton will always be Batman but Bale does a fine job as this darker version of the bat.

Overall though the quality of this film is just through the roof. I truly am blown away by this movie. It will take me time to digest if this is the best superhero film of all time but just the fact that I am considering it tells you how great this was. See this film at all costs!

Wow, really? I don't get it man....   what did everybody love so much about it? The big explosions? Not one legitimate scene of violence. Yeah guns were blazing but people drop like they're in a video game. The pencil scene with the joker? I mean I understand it's PG-13 for a reason but c'mon..... give me SOMETHING. A DROP of blood maybe? Maybe some stylish shots here and there? Literally all I was looking for when seeing this was a little style, a little creativity but all I got was garbage, IMO. I think everybody just WANTED to love this flick so much that it didnt take alot to impress em. And what the hell was that bullshit with the "sonar" in Bales eyes and the big board Freeman was seeing over with the cell phone frequencies? I thought that shit was laughable.

Havent seen it yet but I understand where you are coming from with everybody WANTING to love it so much. If Ledger hadnt offed himself it most likely would not have set the box office records that it did, but it still would have been a major blockbuster. Hoping to get a chance to see it this week though so I can make the decision for myself.

[Marshal Earp]

lmao, its got nothing to do with wanting to love anything. I "wanted" to love "Land of the Dead" but thought it was epic shit. I "wanted" to love the new Indiana Jones flick but was very let down. "The Dark Knight" is a great film period. That's my opinion and there is no hidden reason behind me loving it besides thinking it was great. I am not sentimental about Heath Ledger's death at all, I just think he delivered an oscar worthy performance. I don't need ultra violence to get into a film. I have a wide range of taste and my taste says The Dark Knight was one the best if not the best superhero flicks ever made.

[GiveMeGore]

lmao, its got nothing to do with wanting to love anything. I "wanted" to love "Land of the Dead" but thought it was epic shit. I "wanted" to love the new Indiana Jones flick but was very let down. "The Dark Knight" is a great film period. That's my opinion and there is no hidden reason behind me loving it besides thinking it was great. I am not sentimental about Heath Ledger's death at all, I just think he delivered an oscar worthy performance. I don't need ultra violence to get into a film. I have a wide range of taste and my taste says The Dark Knight was one the best if not the best superhero flicks ever made.

I agree 100% with Ledgers performance. Just found the film to be mind numbing when he wasnt on screen. And I don't need ultra violence to get into any film either but when the film literally revolves around violence, explosions, shootings, in an ACTION flick......I'd like it if they actually shown me something.

[FatalTragedy]

I thought the entire underlying message of Dark Knight carried more weight than the action did, but I kind of agree with you on one point. They didn't show enough gore. I thought the same thing when I watched psycho for the first time. The blood circling the drain just wasn't enough, I wanted to see a cross-section of the woman's body so I could watch the knife puncture her kidneys.


I don't know, there's a time and a place for it and I think watching movies for the sake of seeing blood spill is kind of monotonous. There was a lot more substance to this movie than I would expect from a comic adaption aimed at teenagers.

[Splatterscribe]

I'm an avid Spiderman fan above all else. Spiderman 2 has easily been my choice for best comic adaptation since it debuted. Not even the terrific Iron Man could usurp it. Batman-as a character-  is in the top five for me but not at the top. Yet I have to agree.. TDK is hands down the best comic to film adaptation to date.
What I found truly remarkable was that- despite all of the hype surrounding Ledger (who was fucking brilliant) - by the conclusion of the film, Harvey Dent/Two-Face was easily as scary as the Joker. That scene with the kid was chilling.

Also, for the first time in years, I was in a capacity crowd which applauded not at dialogue but at an actual action sequence..namely the bit with the semi. That was all kinds of awesome.

[PumpkinKing]

I just saw The Dark Knight today, and I have to say it's far and away the best super hero movie I've ever seen. Batman has long been my favorite comic hero, and I thought Nolan and Bale were brilliant in the first one. I was very happy with that because the 2 Joel Schumacher Batman films were jokes. If my wife and her best friend hadn't begged me to stay I would have walked out on Batman and Robin, something I've never done (and I've seen some stinkers). It's nice for this fan to see my favorite hero brought back to the top. My hat's off to all involved.

[GeneralCinema]

Finally saw it.  I will agree that it's the best superhero movie ever made.  Plus, Heath Ledger makes Jack Nicholson's performance look bad.  The sad thing about this is that JN was HAND-PICKED by Bob Kane.  I loved Heath's Joker, but I saw only one flaw with him.  They needed to incorporate Nicholson's Joker into Ledger's Joker.

There were no practical joke based weapons, like the razor-sharp playing cards, acid-spewing flowers, cyanide pies, and lethally electric joy buzzers.  I know that TDK made things more realistic, but I like consistency with my comic movies.

In the comics, for those that don't know, Joker is the ONLY villain that LITERALLY scares people more powerful than him.  There are villains that won't associat with him just because he's that fucking crazy.  Lex Luthor doesn't have that problem because he's easily as ruthless as Joker.  He knows to ALWAYS invite Joker to the really big plans because otherwise joker WILL find out, and he WILL kill you.  No other comic character is crazy for the sake of being crazy.  Here's an example of what Joker would do.  Some of it was captured in TDK:

Joker would hire henchmen to help him rob a bank.  While in the bank, he'd kill all of the employees - most likely with Joker Venom - and then all of his henchmen - maybe Joker Venom again, or he'd use a different method for each -  If any cops confront him, he'd kill all of them - probably with a gag weapon large enough for all of them - and then while televising his victory, he'd burn all of the money.

[PumpkinKing]

I'm glad they decided not to use those kind of gags in the movie. This way, the Joker was more terrifying because he didn't have joy buzzers and acid squirting flowers, etc. Those props are too hokey for the depth of darkness Nolan and Ledger were able to bring to the Joker. I found it much more intimidating for the Joker to whip out a knife and promise to make someone else's mouth resemble his own than for him to have the flower on his lapel squirt some lethal fluid in someone's face. Besides, not every writer has given the Joker those gag props. Some, such as Alan Moore, have presented him much more like the one in the film. But like many other movie elements, to each his own.

[GeneralCinema]

I'm glad they decided not to use those kind of gags in the movie. This way, the Joker was more terrifying because he didn't have joy buzzers and acid squirting flowers, etc. Those props are too hokey for the depth of darkness Nolan and Ledger were able to bring to the Joker. I found it much more intimidating for the Joker to whip out a knife and promise to make someone else's mouth resemble his own than for him to have the flower on his lapel squirt some lethal fluid in someone's face. Besides, not every writer has given the Joker those gag props. Some, such as Alan Moore, have presented him much more like the one in the film. But like many other movie elements, to each his own.

It's true what you said about Alan Moore (who, by the way is completely fucking crazy) but look at what Grant Morrison did with the Joker.  In the Graphic Novel Arkham Asylum, (which involved a broker going to Arkham on a false insanity charge who became the main focus of the story) he had Joker go on a Palindrome Murder Spree.  He was armed only with a telephone book and a gun that shot poison darts.  Anyone who's name (first and last together) was a palindrome, he'd shoot them with the dart.

Things like that Heath Ledger's Joker needed.  There were no gags there, but the killing spree itself was the gag.

Also, your mention of Alan Moore prompted me to change my signature to something from one of his GL stories.